Friday, 4 August 2017

Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire T20

Before this game, most of us thought that we needed to win two of the last four games to qualify for the knockout stage of the competition.

Tonight, after a battling display, it is two from three, in all likelihood.

The chase never seemed quite 'there' tonight and although the side battled hard to the end, the visitors ended up doing a narrow double over us, winning by eight runs. The sixes from the last two balls of the Nottinghamshire innings were the match defining moments and sealed the margin of victory.

I'm quite tight for time tonight and am up for work at six tomorrow, so I am happy to leave thoughts on tonight's performance to the many of you that I am sure were there. I will give my thoughts tomorrow night or Sunday, when I have a little more opportunity to do so.

Interestingly (make that happily...) both Yorkshire and Warwickshire lost tonight, to Durham and Worcestershire respectively, so we remain top of a very competitive group with three games to play.

Two of them are at home, too.

Our destiny remains very much in our own hands and we still have the second best net run rate in the group.

Notts were gifted twelve runs off our last two balls. Felt a real pity. Gurney and Ball bowled better than us at the business end.We misfielded a couple tonight, too.

Wayne's uppercut shot didn't quite have the pace off the pitch to clear short third man's catch.

We found Patel irksome and he fielded well off his own bowling. They strung more dots together, it seemed to me.

Hales covers ground well, and they thwarted the number of twos we could run.

Would have helped catching Wessels (I think) at deep mid-wicket in third over. Should perhaps have been walking in from the rope, rather then retreating but my view point was diametrically opposite.

Averagely, posting 189 wins most games, I guess, though I'm no statistician.

In previous years, these things wouldn't be anything new. We're all well used to them. But this isn't most years.Have we got JGW for a second year? If not, he'll be hot property, given how he's transformed us.

Although somewhat deflated, am relieved to see the other results have gone our way.

Some rest and recuperating hopefully follows before a conclusion to the group phase that could well see us needed thereafter.

Obviously 180 rather than 190 would have been better (poor last 2 balls), but we would probably taken chasing that total at the toss. I think a big difference to our batting last night was that we did not keep rotating the strike and finding the gaps for the singles so we're under pressure to go for the big hit and miss (Jake ball's over to tom wood). I think the other point is how we rely on 3 of top 6 getting the runs. Pity that it was notts, but the other results went for us let's just hope that the bottom teams are not beginning to find form.

It would have been a good catch to get rid of Wessels but the fielder (couldn't tell who) had for me made the schoolboy error of not being quite on the rope and then made a momentary lack of judgement in taking another step forward on seeing the ball off the bat. In the end he got a diving full hand on it above his head when it could have been taken two handed from the correct position.

Not seen the bowling figures yet (most weren't read out) but suspect apart from Sodhi & Mullaney who got a bit of stick the rest seemed to bowl enough clusters of dot balls to frustrate us.

Not to disheartened after last night. Primarily due to other results.We now have the bottom three to play, whilst all the others around the top will be taking points off each other.After our previous showings in the T20 competition, I have to say i'm really enjoying this year. The team have not fallen by the wayside, as in previous years, and are a very competitive group.How things have changed. I am looking forward to our qualification, with hopefully a home draw.

As you picked up on the last two they put for 6 took it from a probable 180 to 189. 10 too many even if we bat well. One of those was a rank knee high full toss. We also dropped Wessells early on the boundary. My view showed something different to 'justmissin'leg' where I saw the fielder run in so far it went over him and despite a backwards dive he could only help it over the rope for 6. Had he have just stood there it looked a simple regulation catch. I think the sun was in his eyes. Be interesting if anyone could correct or confirm this. 2 miss-fields apart we fielded well. They actually dropped a couple of catches although their ground fielding was equally good. Wood looked a little at sea, bludgeoned a few miss hits in the air and reeve masterful on the straight drive. Madsen again good although having got away with a similar shot, being dropped, attempted the same to a slowish ball and was easily caught. We were always 1 wicket too many but level with d/l all the way through. Overs 17 and 18 were crucial in that we didn't get the big one we were looking for. Notts varied their pace well with lots of slower ones from the seamer and quicker ones from patel. In the end good but no cigar. Big crowd that remained strangely as silent as you will ever hear a T20 crowd

Disappointing but not catastrophic, although it's a measure of how dynamic this group is that Notts could be top of the group tonight, having been on the brink of slipping out of contention if they'd lost to us. It's also a bit disconcerting to find Durham and Worcs beating Yorkshire and the Bores, so there's a warning about complacency when it comes to our last three. My feeling is that we need to win two of them to be certain of qualifying, and all three to ensure a home draw.

It felt to me that nothing was quite good enough last night, and the slightly worrying thing is that we always seem to have one of these games in us, however well we're playing generally. I was puzzled by Wilson’s decision not to bring Cotton on until the 15th over, which meant that however well he bowled, he could only have three overs. The fielding wasn’t as sharp as I’ve seen it, and there was an odd incident involving Moores when Smit appeared to knock the bails off with his gloves a split second before the ball from Tahir hit them. Moore’s wicket at that point would have made a huge difference, and it felt generally that we’d conceded 20 runs too many for comfort. There was credit to the batting in that without anyone apart from Reece really firing, we still got as close as we did.

One consistent factor, however, has been the unreliable performances of Matt Henry, and this was poor even by his disappointing standard. He dropped a catch from Wessels, palming it for 6 in the process, dived over a ball that went for 4 attempting a catch, consistently missed his yorker length and served up full tosses, and wasted enough balls trying to smash them for Viljoen to steal the strike off him in the final over to try to finish it. You suspect that he’s a player who can fire on occasions, but on the evidence we’ve seen, you wait a long time for it to happen and have to put up with a lot of dross in the meantime. It was a surprise to see him given the last over when he’d bowled poorly earlier and Viljoen, Cotton and Hughes all had overs left over. An economy rate consistently over 10 an over is bad enough, but he’s not taking many wickets either, and his tendency to bowl really shocking overs means that the game can turn against us very quickly when he’s bowling. The balance of risk and reward with him is wrong, and I’d be more comfortable about our chances relying on Hughes, Reece and Cotton filling in the overs, or Taylor added.

Headingley was fantastic (parallel universe time!), but, with Notts & Northants both winning today and overtaking us in the table, last night's result is even more frustrating and disappointing. We were never quite "there" last night, and I had ominous feelings right from the start, when our fielding was not as professional as it has been before. "notoveryet" has said what I think about Mr Henry, far more eloquently than I could! Still, we are stuck with him now, more's the pity!

Our fate is still in our hands, however, and we need to hold our nerve. I'm not sure why the ECB has decreed that we should play a four-day match next week, but it will be nice to "slow down" for a while after all the frenetic activity of T20. Let's hope we can repeat our encouraging performance at Trent Bridge in June, but this time with a win.

Some interesting comments. Did not see smit knock bails. Did we miss out on a wicket here? Also I now remember Henry diving over the 4, although it was a 50/50 scenario of saving 3 or getting a wicket. Yes the batting in the last two overs odd. A run of dots, players scrambling on the floor, viljoens massive six and then the pair trying master class flicks to no avail when a big smack would have suited them better

I'm glad someone else mentioned the silent crowd. I felt like a right lemon cheering our boundaries and wickets as no one around us was (even the Notts fans for their moments). Very odd. And I was stone cold sober. Wonder how many were in the ground?

I would guess over 3000 but under 4000 Tim. Like someone else said it was strange. Always in the game 50/50, par with duckworth Lewis all through the chase but felt we would not quiet get there. A couple of loose fielding moments maybe set that nearly night tone?

About Me

I've been a fan of Derbyshire since 1967 and experienced the ups and downs with everyone else.
I work for a major retailer and love my job, although wishing it was closer to Derby!
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